It sounds good when you play big-league baseball for a living to say you take each of the 162 games as its own entity, that what happened yesterday has little to do with what happens today and no impact at all on tomorrow.
Who is buying it?
This was the mantra the San Diego Padres pushed after clipping the Rockies 5-2 on Wednesday night at Coors Field. It followed the 20-1 mugging by the Rockies the night before.
You lose 20-1, drop to a 75-75 record, feel the burn of the pennant race and the sting of criticism that you are pretenders, well, that stuff sticks. It should provide fuel.
The Padres were acting like getting shelled for 20 runs was something to brush off as simply one of their 162 games. In fact, this franchise has played 5,866 games and only once – 28 years ago – did it allow 20 or more runs in a game. The 19-run margin of defeat tied the worst in club history; it happened twice for the Padres in the 1969 season.
So, that was an epic barrage for the Padres and an embarrassing low, and I would suggest that it set the Padres’ frame of mind in a hungrier mode Wednesday night.
Afterward, they were talking about “a must-win” and “stopping the bleeding.” About showing why they are in first place in the first place.
That did not sound like players who forgot 20-1.
It would serve the Padres well in their final 11 games to embrace the moment and look boldly at what lies ahead. They lead the Giants by five games and play them four times at home this month. If the Padres win the National League West, they will likely play St. Louis and must contend with a confident, superior team.
The only way to do that is with eyes wide open.
Rebounding from 20-1 is a nice step.
Getting candid with themselves and standing erect to pressure could make them this postseason’s surprise.
They were honest about keeping an eye on the scoreboard and seeing that the Giants had won at Washington.
“This was a very big game for us,” said center fielder Dave Roberts, who played like it with four hits (including two triples and a double) and two RBIs. “You don’t want to watch the scoreboard, but we did and we knew the Giants were winning. We’re leading this division. There are reasons for that.”
Some would answer, yeah, because the Rockies, Dodgers, Diamondbacks and Giants are in it, four foul teams.
The Padres, to their credit, are not going to get sucked into that game. No matter how it comes, they will take a postseason ride just like any other team would. Jake Peavy did his part, teaching Mike Esposito a trick or two in Esposito’s pro debut. Peavy pitched 7 2/3 innings, Esposito five. Both allowed seven hits. Peavy allowed two runs, Esposito three. Peavy has a 13-7 record and showed his power when he needed it and his smarts throughout.
Peavy has a tough-minded, direct attitude. That, too, will serve the Padres well in their final run.
The Rockies have outplayed the Padres in the season’s second half but have little to show for it. The Padres are playing for the divisional title, the Rockies, with 89 losses, are seeking to avoid surpassing the franchise-worst 95 losses in their inaugural season.
A victory by the Rockies in this game would have ensured they could have no more than 99 losses. With 11 games left, the Rockies should reach their late-season, salvaging goals.
This season began in this park back in early April when the Rockies won 12-10 on a dramatic Clint Barmes ninth-inning home run off reliever Trevor Hoffman. Forty-seven thousand, six hundred and sixty-one people at Coors saw that. This game ended with Hoffman striking out Barmes for Hoffman’s 40th save. There were 18,437 around this time.
The Rockies have suffered injuries to each of their position starters, traded experience, watched their bullpen flounder and then stiffen. Youth has been served, and all we really know about the Rockies is they have identified their core group of players for 2006 and they can compete in a play-out-the-string mode.
How do they translate that into learning to compete for a championship?
You need to be in the moment, as the Padres are, in the lead and in contention for something great. And proceed boldly.
Rockies management today concludes a three-day session of analysis and assessment of the team. Changes will come. A slew of them have already.
The Rockies are admittedly the reverse of the Padres postgame fodder – they are counting on their yesterdays improving today and impacting tomorrow.
Staff writer Thomas George can be reached at 303-820-1994 or tgeorge@denverpost.com.
